Make your own plein air watercolor set

I've really gotten into watercolor painting and with spring here, it's fun to go outside and paint something beautiful I happen across.  However, it's kind of hard to schlep all your gear around.  The answer to this is a traveling plein air watercolor set. Plein air means "in the open air"

It's how us creative types try to feel all worldly and crap.
:p

I found a couple tutorials online on how to make your own mini plein air kit, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Start with an altoids box (or that approximate size) and a block of white sculpting clay.  Get the brand that you can bake in your home oven.  (Fimo, sculpty, etc).  You'll also need some glue and a can of white spray paint

This altoid tin is really a blank I bought years ago to do something crafty with and never did it apparently.  I think I was going to use it for a scrapbook.

Didn't happen.

1. Normal people would probably spray paint first, but I ws anxious to get started so I just opened the fimo, worked it until it was soft and pressed it evenly in the bottom.

2. You can see where I'm starting to make some wells for my paints.

3.  I used the handle of one of my steak knives to make my wells because it was about the right size, flat on the end and "retangle-ish".  After you do all the rows, you will probably have to come back and do them again and and again as the fimo will displace and distort the other wells as you go along.  Just keep working it until you get them all even without a lot of distortion around the edges.

4.  Bake the fimo in the oven according to the directions.  I believe I baked my for 20 minutes.  After it cooled, I could see that it shrank slightly from the baking process so I used a little tacky glue as kind of "caulking" around the edges.  I didn't want water to get under it and cause rust.

You can add paints now if you like but if you haven't spray painted it yet, don't be like me and do it now.  Cover the well area and spraypaint the lid white.  You want it white so you can see if your colors are mixed to the shade you want.

Once your paint is dry, add your paints.  Leave the top open until they are dry.  You've just created a traveling holder with 10 pans of paint! (you can tell which are my cheap ones and which are the expensive ones lol)

Now I can just drop it in my purse and go.  I have this brush in my purse all the time.  I keep a little waterbucket in my glove box (which is a single serving ice cream container) so if the urge ever strikes, I can paint when I wish.

You can make these even smaller if you like.  It's almost a contest to see who can make the smallest travel set.  I saw one that fit in the cap of a water bottle - and worked!

This isn't a 100% true "trash to treasure" because it was all new materials, but find yourself some altoids (who can resist those tins?) and make your own!

Boo Kitty's bachelor pad

I have a boyfriend.

His name is Boo Kitty.  He adores me.  It's kinda nice having all these guys that just fawn all over you like you are some kind of supermodel or something.

(made out of catnip)

Boo Kitty lives on our deck.  I'm sure he thinks it's the Taj Mahal.  Thing is, he'd be living on the foot of my bed if I wasn't married to a grumpy old man.

Anyway, he spends most of his day on the deck, taking naps, hanging out, waiting for the food machine (me) come outside and give him some krunchies and some rubbins.

I was feeling kind of bad, we had about a week of rain and he was wet all the time.  I'd stick blankets under the bench but he wasn't interested.  Then Tanner decided to make him a condo of his own and he's been thrilled ever since.  He has spent many an hour there, especially if it's rainy or cold out.

It's an old cat litter box (clean) with an old comforter on the inside, and a blanket to cover and keep out the wind.  Then a piece of granite on top of that to keep out water. 

Oh.  And a plant.

Every nice house needs a plant.

He's as happy as a pig in slop.

Poor delusional boo kitty.

Just how I like my men.

I bet this is how they get cornish game hens

I think it's safe to say I am sooooo over chickens in the house already.

I think it's time for a long term chicken vacation, and not just one to the back yard for a few hours. Sadly it's a few more weeks before they can go into a more "outdoor assignment" since they don't have all their feathers yet.  They are officially awkward ugly-teen-stage birds.

They also stink.

And they try to fly out of their playpen "bedroom".  (I caught two sitting on the edge of my dining room table.)

Hey, but look at the bright side, the second wave of chicks will be here tomorrow.

Shoot me.

chick chick chick chick

It's that time again....

BABY CHICKS!!!

This means lots of peeps and squawks. Pecking and sleeping. Heat lamps and special chick feed.

And chicken snuggles!

Another local photographer had a special mini easter shoot and wanted someone to take the chicks when she was done - because she's a responsible person, unlike the girls I saw carrying baby ducks into the wallsmart.  Something tells me they'll be snapping turtle food in about 4 weeks.

:(

Anyway, yep, you don't need to clean your eyeballs.... they are colored.  She colored them herself carefully with some food color.  They are ok - don't fret.  They'll lose all this color once they lose their baby downy feathers. 

In just a week, they are a good 30% bigger.  Soon they'll outgrow their tub which is in my dining room.  We'll set the playpen up again and watch out, it'll be a real treat.

Watch this space for more photos of chickens than you ever wanted or dreamed of.

In semi-related news...

RIP Daisy Chicken.

*sad face*

Tanner found her next to the lilac bush.   Poor Daisy.  No idea what happened to her.  I've had several chickens die recently unexpectedly.  From what I understand, chickens are really good at hiding when they are sick so you don't know what's up until it's too late.  Thinking back, I haven't really seen much out of Daisy the past few days.

She was such a good chicken, and was the one I'd go find when a kid wanted to hold or pet a chicken.  She was docile because my neice Tayen packed her around like a kitten the first 5 months of her life.

She was also a little bit dumb, which I have found makes for a pretty good pet.

Don't tell Jingles I said that.

I know some people think it's "just a chicken" but she was still a living creature that lived here and we got much enjoyment from - much like other people's dogs and cats.

We'll miss Daisy Chicken.

I have a "special sock"

I have a special sock. 

No... not a "special sock" you big weirdo.

It's just a sock that I use regularly.  You see, Gene and I have a gas fireplace in our bedroom we use for heat.  It works REALLY well btw if you were wondering, sometimes it gets really hot in there.

And the fireplace makes it really warm too.

;)

(haha.  sorry to the relatives that just read that.)

Anyway, a couple years ago Gene had surgery on 2 hernias and we ended up spending the entire summer together because he couldn't work. 

I only wanted to kill him 14 times. 

It was a magical summer.

When he was in the hospital, they gave him some socks.  They are ugly.  Gray with some rubberized marks on the bottom so when he got up to walk down the hallways, he wouldn't fall down and break a hip or something.  Which ended up being a real possibility.

When he went home, they sent the socks home with him.  Quickly one disappeared leaving us with one lonely rubberized sock.

What does this have to do with the fireplace?  Well let me explain.  Sleeping in the bedroom with a fireplace is vavoomromantic, but it's also a pain in the arse when you want to go to sleep. 

You see light and shadows dancing across the ceiling all. night. long.

Even through your eyelids.  Which makes sleeping kind of a challenge.

Gene came up with using a sock as an eye shade.  BRILLIANT!  He, however, quickly moved on to a night mask - which I don't know why I didn't buy me one too, I just didn't get around to it.

I started using gray sock as my night shade and now I have a hard time sleeping without it!!

Rubberized feety part sticks to my face and helps it from sliding off.  (I never thought I'd say that sentence.)  It's long and covers my whole dang head from ear to ear and it's super thick so no light will sneak in.

But the amusing part is when I lose it somewhere in the middle of the night.  Trying to find gray sock in a bed of quilts, sheets, pillows and a glass man is frustrating.

Maybe I should put a little strap on gray sock to make a mask or pin him to my pajamas like a note on a kindergartner.

Summer is coming - spring is most definitely here - and there's no longer a need for a fireplace in the bedroom for heat. 

In the meantime, it's time to wean myself from gray sock.

Someone hold me.